(Newser)
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The busted Facebook-glamorous "Barefoot Bandit" started life as a pitiable little boy, beaten and hungry, who turned to thieving as a way to survive, the New York Timesreports. Colton Harris-Moore lived a hard-scrabble life in a squalid trailer on a dead-end road less than an hour from Seattle, where he used to steal cookies and pizzas from a neighbor's freezer. Harris-Moore's mother screamed so loudly at him and beat him so severely that child protection staffers were called to the boy's home at least a dozen times.

“Colton wants Mom to stop drinking and smoking, get a job and have food in the house,” a child protection report noted after Harris-Moore's first arrest at the age of 12. “Mom refuses.” As for his current Facebook popularity, “he says he’s not into any of that,” said a former lawyer. “He just wants to get this behind him. I think if he had proper direction, he wouldn’t have done what he did.”

I have been following his exploits for over a year now. I think he is a poor kid who suffered greatly from almost a total lack of parenting or guidance. His mother sounds like a self serving idiot that didn't want a kid. I too was raised by a single mother who was little more than a kid herself when she had me. I never knew my father. I had my own years of trouble with the law and authority. I had to learn a lot about life the hard way. I was lucky to get my act together in my mid twenties and get a real job or two. It did make me a pretty tough survivor in the long run. I hope this kid gets a real chance to make something of himself. He is obviously very smart... I wish him well.